On Tuesday, Steny Hoyer (D. Md), the House Majority Leader, gave what was billed as in important speech on the economy and the federal budget. After reading this speech, I now understand why recent polls show Americans increasingly disillusioned by the Democrats’ increasingly indifferent economic stewardship.

Recent polls show the Democrats trailing Republicans in generic Congressional preferences at a time when Republican statements and behavior are increasingly insane, dishonest and destructive, not to mention the pandering to racism and even armed insurrection. So I don’t think Americans are turned off to Democrats because the Republicans have a better message, let alone better policies — in fact they don’t seem to have coherent policies at all.

Congressional Democrats have to work really hard for Americans to view them as a worse choice than Republicans. I’m not about to lay this solely on Hoyer’s House; on many issues, the House has been way ahead of the dysfunctional Senate, and I think Nancy Pelosi and lieutenants deserve some credit for that. But while the Republicans and their media friends have repeatedly lied about and maliciously demonized everything Obama and a Democratic Congress have done, I don’t believe the majority of Americans truly believe all that nonsense. So if those aren’t the reasons for the Democrats’ fall from favor, they might want to consider what they’re actually saying and delivering to voters.

The most recent polls tell us Americans are far more concerned about the economy and jobs than deficits — an entirely sensible view — but somehow, that simple message isn’t getting through to Congress. It’s been clear for a year that we needed another stimulus bill, or a "jobs bill" and massive federal support for devastated state budgets to avoid slashing Medicaid and laying off hundreds of thousands of teachers and other public servants. The Republican answer, delivered by their moral spokesman Rand Paul, is that these people deserve to be layed off, while safety-net measures only encourage laziness. But far too many Democrats — none of whom deserve to be reelected — have voted as if they believe this evil notion. So why should Americans contribute to the DSCC and DCCC to fund these clowns? No one should give these incumbent protection rackets a dime if allegiance to fundamental Democratic principles is not a requirement.

Steny Hoyer’s speech shows why he is a major part of that problem.

Hoyer opens his speech to Third Way (not essentially different from the other two ways) by crediting a Gallup poll that suggested Americans "fear" the US debt almost as much as they fear terrorism. Hoyer thus begins his discussion of US deficits by assuming these two overly hyped and irrational fears should be the basis for US economic policy.

Rotten tomatoes should have begun flying in Hoyer’s direction at that point, but he continued to repeat all of the Republican/Peterson gibberish about how the US deficits lead inexorably to "a stagnant economy, a hobbled government, and a weak national defense," even though later in his speech he gives credit to the stimulus for proving that none of that is true.

More than ever, it’s possible to imagine a government with nothing left to spend on educating our children, on securing our borders, on conducting groundbreaking research.

This is complete nonsense, reinforcing Republican talking points and the billionaire Peterson’s propaganda. But to justify Obama’s "Fiscal Responsibility" ("cat food") Commission, you have to buy the lie that the US "has nothing left" to spend on what the country actually needs unless we take drastic measures to reduce US budget deficits.

To be sure, Hoyer repeats the Administration line that economic recovery should come first and deficit reduction only later, after recovery is assured. But then he abandons that by the end by calling for further budget cuts next year, even though no one is projecting rapid growth or major improvements in unemployment in 2011 or even 2012.

He defends the ARRA (stimulus) and notes correctly that economic growth would be slower and unemployment higher if we hadn’t passed the stimulus. But Hoyer apparently can’t extract from that now proven cause/effect the obvious lesson that until the recovery is solid and unemployment is brought back closer to full employment, we should be doing more stimulus spending, a lot more. We should just stop feeding the irrational "fears" that our childrens’ future will be murdered in their beds by the terrifying national debt.

Hoyer could have ended his speech here, apologizing for the fact he doesn’t understand what he just said and is thus unqualified to be a leader of the Democratic Party. But he didn’t, and it gets worse.

Ever the ideal Beltway "centrist," a euphymism for not being able to articulate a coherent idea of his own, Hoyer tells us that we have to solve the budget deficit problem with a balanced approach that includes both spending cuts and taxes.

But on the revenue/taxes side, he offers no ideas; apparently the Leader is unwilling to identify a single feature or stratum of America’s economy that warrants higher taxes. Instead, his statements about whether to extend or end the Bush tax cuts, either for the wealthy or the middle class, are so couched that the hapless Washington Post’s editors and reporter made two tries to explain them and failed both times. (Do we need the Washington Post?)

On spending cuts, however, Hoyer can’t wait to tell us that entitlements should be cut, because everyone should be part of the "shared sacrifice" essential for fairness. Fairness, of course, would suggest redressing the egregious redistribution of wealth towards the wealthiest 5-10 percent or so, but Hoyer doesn’t mention that. Unwilling in a speech about "balance" and "fairness" to suggest higher taxes on the wealthy and privileged or the end of subsidies for industries that are strangling America, he suggests Social Security and Medicare benefits take a hit, while blaming the choice on the cat food commission. Here’s what Hoyer thinks is a profile in courage:

It isn’t possible to debate and pass a realistic, long-term budget until we’ve considered the bipartisan commission’s deficit-reduction plan, which is expected in December. I believe that Congress must take up and vote on that plan.

“To share sacrifices fairly, and to be politically viable, the commission’s proposal can only have one form: an agreement that cuts spending and raises revenue when the economy recovers.

“On the spending side, we could and should consider a higher retirement age, or one pegged to lifespan; more progressive Social Security and Medicare benefits; and a stronger safety net for the Americans who need it most. We also need the in-depth scrutiny of defense spending that Secretary Gates has demanded.

So, the Democratic House Majority Leader signals to the cat food commission that some form of benefit cuts to older people (or young people not yet worried about becoming old) would be just fine, and he doesn’t suggest how those could be "balanced" by higher taxes. He merely adds, "raising revenue is part of the solution too," and then wanders off in revisionist history.

You’d think a leader of the Democratic Party would start by saying there is no deficit crisis now, that government spending to boost demand and save jobs now is absolutely a good thing and necessary, and that if it weren’t happening, there would be much more unemployment, slower growth and larger private debt. You don’t need a degree in economics to get that borrowing at 2-3 percent interest to save a teacher’s job is better than having a layed-off teacher hang on by maxing out their credit card debt paying 25 percent.

A leader would tell us that any "structural" long-run deficit issue is primarily a function of paying too much money for health care, which is NOT the same thing as excessive entitlement benefits. And a leader would explain that the problem isn’t too many people on Medicare/Medicaid, or people living longer, or providing more worthwhile health care than beneficiaries deserve.

A Democratic leader would explain very clearly that the problem is that the United States pays drug makers, doctors, hospitals and other providers far more money — up to twice as much — than other countries pay for equal or better health care.

A leader faced with incessant lying from the opposition and confusion/complicity from the media would repeat, over an over, that our "long-run budget deficit" problem in Medicare is about what we pay providers and what we pay them to do. To get at that problem, we have to confront not benefits to old people but payments to providers.

We have to take on conflicts of interest, concentrated markets, anti-competitive patents and non-compete agreements, anti-consumer exclusivity protections for drug monopolies excluding generics, special deals with PhRMA and corporate hospitals, automatic "doc fixes" and on and on.

But of course, Steny Hoyer can’t admit any of these truths, because the Democratic Congress bought into "long-run structural deficits" when it and the Administration bought some meaningless campaign contributions with special deals for health care providers and PhRMA. It argued for "bending the curve" but then gave away the largest structural deficit solutions when it took Medicare for all off the table, and when it killed the public option and its ability to force insurers to compete and providers to bargain against a Medicare option. It gave the drug makers multi-year monopoly pricing and shielded them from Medicare negotiations and foreign competition.

Sorry, Steny; you may look half-way sane compared to the idiotic and nihilist Republicans, but the American people are smart enough to figure out you gave away the game — and their money. And now you have the nerve to lecture us on why we need to wait for the cat food commission to give you the political cover to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits? But hey, it’s only for young people who aren’t paying attention.

In aiming to be only slightly less destructive of the middle class than Republicans, Steny Hoyer is running for Minority Leader. I think he’s earned it, but it’s the country that will pay the price.

Yes, it is no longer the House of Representatives -putting aside the FACT that the same number of ‘Reps’ exist as when WWII ended despite the population being three times larger AND the President-via SCOTUS ruling- can tell the House to increase it’s numbers- but the House of Prostitutes.

No mention of debt from the trillions for banks or the trillions for endless wars against a phantom enemy. That money will have to be paid back to the Fed by forfeiting all the money they’ve been pilfering from us every week with no intention of honoring their side of a pact that’s been honored for seventy years. Stealing our money is easy.
Just pass a new law!

They might as well call their Debt Commission The Real Death Panel.
So what if little old ladies are dropping like flies from starvation or medical needs they can no longer afford. So what if we’re living in tents in freezing temps, or rifling through garbage cans for food. It’s the shared sacrifices we’re all gonna have to make so long as we’re able to fork over our health insurance premiums or have the IRS on our tails.

Hoyer has always struck me as a slick corporate servant, a flag-of-convenience vessel who would be at home in either party. He’s not charismatic enough to make my flesh crawl, but he gives me the creeps.

It is time for progressives to attack these Trojan Horses, they can’t hide in DC forever. The Tea Party is a joke, it is media driven, and follows the biggest comedian in the World Rush Limbaugh. Progressive must drag the trojan horses out of the democratic party ASAP.

Obama poll numbers are going down, and they will continue to go down.

The BIG problem with people like Obama and the Right Wing nuts is none of their ideas WORK!

Hoover was not an economic genius.

The USA is in a Depression.

The 2010 elections are going to all but end the days of Clinton politics, because no one likes being around losers.

The BP oil spill has expose Fox News as being a corporate front, and the same can be said about the OBAMA white house, congress, the people now know that Fox News, congress and Obama don’t care about them.

Can anyone name a real Democrat President that would have handled the BP oil disaster like OBAMA?

an intelligent democrat would keep the idea of cutting social security in the news paper, to make Obama wear it like badge of honor.

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven, right? If the Democrats lose the House this fall, Pelosi loses her job. That’s the way it almost inevitably works. Hoyer is next in line. He shouldn’t be, but given how stupid the House Democrats have been, he probably will win.

The real question on my mind is why Pelosi is fool enough to let this stand, but there’s certainly precedent for thinking she will.

Reganomics versus jobs…the dems are now in the conservative Republican camp with the oligarchy. Masaccio and Scarecrow you are highly respected time to build a Trojan horse to insert you into their camp. Krugman will be hind you.

a) They don’t believe their jobs depend on the voters and the economy
b) They don’t hear anything from their media sources that tells them anything that contradicts the views of their well-insulated village
c) They have their retirement years well-funded already
[ d) All of the above ]

I’d like to see a list of all the Ds (in both houses) who are willing to buy into deficit reduction as being more important than creating jobs and making sure even unemployed people have food, shelter, and transportation.

After throwing a couple more bricks (and missing this time), I finally just reached for the remote and turned the damn TV OFF.

That damned Ed Shultz is playing the fear card louder than any I’ve seen here. He even had the stones to look in the camera and ask “Why are mad at the Democrats? They’ve tried to represent the working folk, but the Republicans are blocking everything they try.” (Maybe not word for word, I turned it off instead of replaying it to get the quote exact.)

Yeah, right Ed. Those mean ole’ Republicans forced the health care bill to be a bonanze for the health insurance corporations rather than helping actual “working folk”. Ed, take a gander at how many Republicans voted for the Health care bill. It’s ZERO. You can’t blame the Republicans one little bit for that.

And it wasn’t the Republicans that turned the stimulus bill from an actual jobs program/stimulus bill into more tax cuts, that would be the Democrats that did that too. How many Republicans voted for the stimulus?? I’d bet not many.

They are really ratcheting up their “YOU’VE GOT TO SUPPORT DEMOCRATS BECAUSE LOOK, LOOK AT THOSE INSANE REPPUBLICANS!”

And this is why we are screwed I believe. There are many many more trojan horses than real dems. I pray FDL decides to get ahead of the curve and start to view things more with that perspective. It is positively madening to keep being “surprised” that the dems are just as bad of sellouts as the GOP. Just cause they use nicer words, there ain’t a lick of difference between them anymore. Wake up to this fact because we can’t take a real step until we do..

There’s no doubt in my mind that Congress really does understand the concerns of the American people. They know it’s jobs and the economy and not deficits. They just don’t give a crap.

I will be watching these people closely. If they don’t stand up for the people, they won’t get a dime. I’ll make a point of sending checks to anyone who does, though. And if that means Alan Grayson gets it all, so be it.

Forget the Democratic Party. They are but a memory.
The entire US government is no more.

What we have now is a massive lawless crime syndicate free to operate without ant limits. They’re one and only mission is to pull every last penny out of everyone and everything, including planet earth itself.

I’ll never again vote for anyone who doesn’t vote for the public’s interest. This is not a compromise, it’s a sell out. Perhaps the Dems are working with the Repubs to make sure the Repubs take the house again. Then nothing further will happen. No more regulations, no more healthcare, no more social security and they can say, ‘we didn’t have the votes’, pander to their corporate masters and then we can all cower at the voting booths thinking, ‘but the republicans will be worse’.

If that’s what you personally choose to do, then I allow you to do it without judgment. I won’t. I’ll vote 3rd party or write in and continue to do what i can to affect my local politics where I can have a voice.

Republicans and Democrats basically seem to do the same things once they are in office, just the Democrats campaign more dishonestly – the Democrats pretend to be progressive/liberal in many issues (like how the Democrats expressly campaigned on the Dorgan amendment when they were out of power only to then knife the amendment once they had a chance to actually carry it out), while the Republicans tend to say they’re corporatists and proud of it. The Republicans knife you in the front, while the Democrats knife you in the back.

Saying a thing and doing it, are two different things.
All you gotta do is listen to them, like Grayson or Obama.
They say exactly how we feel. I know they know what we need and their refusal to do anything shows their level of contempt for us.

What’s really stopping them from doing the right thing, right now?
Not enough Dems? Bull. Blue Dogs? Well, they ain’t going anywhere.
Republicans? Total rubbish. Dems don’t need em to do anything if they really want to.

So, what’s going to change if the country re elects them?
Not a damn thing.
Voting for a Dem is rewarding horrific failures.

Exactly right. We are screwed until we collectively start our discussions with how do we get a third way going, everyone in this country is hungry for it. There is no reform from wihin and I understand that it’s painfull for a lot of lifelong dems to accept that but it’s absolutely true…

Granted, those policies tend to work entirely against the public interest but that’s to be expected coming from right wing predators (establishment) who equate corporate bribes and payoffs with freedom of speech.

Adding to the insanity is the fact that big corporations no longer even have national identities. These multinational “corporate citizens” have more power over US policy than actual flesh and blood American citizens. America could go down in flames and the multinationals won’t care so long as they keep meeting thier quarterly earnings targets.

We need to fire this batch of politicians and we need to get in establishments face.

From what I’ve seen, we are better off when Democrats are in the minority.
They gotta play opposition against Republicans.
At the least, it’s a restraint on the corporate manhandling Obama’s been able to ram through just because he’s a “Democrat,” whatever the hell that means anymore. What a laugh

I guess in my gut I know-or fear-that the whole pack of them are garbage, including Grayson. But I’m looking for someone to hang with, to stand with, to be a lever against the power of the plutocracy. I guess I could just give up which may in the end be the only option. For now, I’m still looking for someone who would represent, and work for, the people and the country.

Forget Democrats versus Repubs…it’s all a very sick game! Neither of them give a shit…they are completely blind to the human condition that affects the ‘small people’ of this nation.

I posted this elsewhere, but I believe it is relevant regardless-

The US of A is over! Whatever dream that was manifest by our collective aspirations as a nation are toast. This is not rant or speculation, it is hard, cold fact. The elite are in charge, we the ’small people’, are fodder for whatever machine they want to grind us with, and we are doing absolutely nothing of consequence to end the trajectory of our eminent demise. Will the corp elite worry that once we are gone there will be no one to grind up…NO!..they can’t see past their megalomaniac greed and immorality and the only winds of change they can recognize is that which emanates from their fat arses.

Candidly, we (in the nation as a whole sense) allowed this to happen. We were lazy and complacent, when we should have been tough and demanding, but too much of the Nation have been drugged and in a state of somnolence for way too long.

We are caught in a web of deception and lies that turns the labels of things and actions upside down. Evil is good, corps are saintly people, free speech is anarchy, slavery is freedom, politicians can save us, the police are to protect and serve.The bullshit is like a tower of Babel.

…and this has been the game plan all along! If the environmental disaster in the Gulf does not wipe us out, the economic fiasco with all it’s minions of kabuki theatre and self centered enrichment and stupidity will surely make us a nation of very poor, very hungry, very sick, very depressed, and very fucked citizenry. And if we get out of line on our way to the end game, we will be tazered, droned, and screwed into oblivion.

After all that hopey/changey, fuzzy-wuzzy crapola, we are stuck with no additional unemployment for the desperate who need it, one of the worst health care systems in the world, a dark and bleak future for our precious children and elderly, the rape and blunder of the SS and Medicare, a food and drug cartel that poisons us daily, and a ruling elite that has all the cards in their hands, except for our souls.

It’s gotten noticeably worse since the “Citizen’s United” decision, don’t you think? They’re all pretty blatant about giving us the finger lately.

With the midterms coming up now, the incessant lying by Obama and the Democrats will be at a fevered pitch. That and blaming Republicans for
blocking all the great stuff they tried to do for us.
Shameless trash.

The only way to get through this is though your own devices. Whatever it takes. Think in those terms. Cash, no paper trails. Fly below the radar. Certain things are unavoidable, but the less they know the better. They’re not giving anything back, they’re not stewards of the people anymore, so why tell them anything?

Forget about them. They’re not going to do anything for the greater good. They’re going to steal everything from this country and sell it off to the multinationals. The end game appears to be Wall St. will own everything and everyone.

And he is able to get away with his whoring cuz no one on the so called librul NTWK,you know the stars…….Shultz,Olberman & Maddow are too busy blaming the GOP as the whores of corporations…….The day they(MSNBC NTWK stars) start revealing the culprits Dems & as well as the rotten GOP would be the day that average Americans can be proud of the media once more.

Rand Paul never, ever said people ‘deserved to be laid off’. What is it about Rand Paul that makes people think they can just say he said anything at all? He said the unemployment / jobs bill should be a priority but it should be paid for. Democrats apparently thought every pig stink study and marsh mouse preserve in the budget was more important than this bill.

The interest on the debt now is $400 billion a year. In the event interest rates go up to 15%, not an unprecedented level, and all the more likely when the monetary base is expanded as ours has been, the interest would be at $2 TRILLION, the amount of our entire expenditures. Then there would be NOTHING else spent.

Spending MUST be cut. Is there truly anyone here who thinks NOTHING in the budget could have been cut to make up this amount?

Long term interest rates are now about 3%. A 15% rate is not even remotely plausible under today’s or foreseeable conditions. So the notion of $2 trillion in interest payments is absurd. There is no evidence of meaningful inflation; none.

If you read the post, you’ve find I’ve listed a half dozen ways in which the driver of the structural deficits — health costs — could be cut over time, by not allowing the industry to behave in anti-competitive ways. Those types of changes are precisely what progressives argued for during the health care debate, when health costs were before Congress. We got zero help from conservatives.

Rand Paul’s indifference to the plight of people comes out every time he opens his mouth. He told one interviewer that while he was entitled to receive Medicare fees meeting the value of his skills, other qualified people who lost their jobs should settle for much lower paying job, but he neglected to mention that there are 5 people unemployed for every available job, skilled or not. Yes, he’s indifferent. But more to the point in the post, this is a Republican view; several Republicans have said in recent days that the unemployed should NOT get extended benefits because it encourages them to remain unemployed, and some Republicans have said even more insulting comments about those without jobs. You might as well apologize for BP.

I don’t think we’re actually in a depression now, but by next year we will be, along with the rest of the world. All governments are pursuing “austerity” now, totally forgetting the lessons learned in the 1930s. I think the best thing we can do now is start to plan for what we do politically when the sh** hits the fan, which is assuredly what’s going to happen.

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